Tesla Inc. is adding a 10th director to its board and emphasizing several of his Elon Musk-friendly qualities.
Hiromichi Mizuno, whose term as chief investment officer of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund ended last month, becomes Tesla’s newest independent director and will sit on the board’s audit committee. The electric-car maker said Mizuno’s career has included work in Silicon Valley and on environmentalism and sustainability. Tesla also noted that he’s challenged the practice of short selling, which Musk has derided for years.
Mizuno became the first investment head of Japan’s $1.5 trillion pension fund in 2015 and oversaw sweeping changes that shifted its portfolio to stocks from domestic debt. Under his guidance, the GPIF’s investments in green, social and sustainability bonds exceeded $3 billion last year.
Mizuno made international headlines by blasting short sellers for “short-termism” in an interview with the Financial Times last year. In December, the fund announced it would stop lending overseas stocks as it was concerned the practice was inconsistent with its stewardship code.